A Gift in the Dark
by PluribusUnum
Summary: Someone leaves a gift in a locker the night of the day before Valentines day. One more chapter planned for this. FF
1. Planning versus Execution

Disclaimed: I don't own any of the characters used within, those belong to Ryan Murphy, Gina Matthews, and the company that owns(owned?) The WB Television Network. I intend to make no profit off of this file.

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Her position at the school gave her the ability to stay later than anyone else, besides faculty members. Thus she found herself looking at a dark hallway, one that had only a few hours earlier been filled with students. Evidence of the approaching holiday tomorrow, was strewn across the rows of metallic gray lockers. Suddenly she was nervous, true that no one was really at school right now, but this was still such a risk. If she were somehow found out, well it would spell the end of her high school career.

Despite this morbid and horrifying thought she steeled herself for what she figured she needed to do, the first step on a long road. A baby step of course, since she wasn't even really sure she was ready to start this little journey, much less finish it out with it's final confession. She wasn't even really sure where the path would go, how long it would take, or the stops along the way.

But, those were worries for another time and place; right now her task was simple. Leave the gifts, gauge the reaction, and that was as far as she got. Really, after this she was lost.

She glanced from side to side, continuing her search for that one locker.

_Aha!_

There it was, one among hundreds; so seemingly unimportant and yet at this very moment it encompassed her entire world. For a single moment it both terrified and enthralled her, then it passed and she set about her work.

Reaching out tentatively she tested the locker with a gloved hand, because frankly it seemed like a good idea, and she had to admit they looked cool. Finding that it was indeed locked, she began counting off the combination in her head while spinning the dial correctly. As she finished she paused for a moment. Then with a barely perceptible sigh she yanked on the handle.

_Click _

The locker swung open to reveal its contents; books, notebooks, and several pictures on the inside face of the door. She quietly perused the images for a moment; they were what was to be expected. Her boyfriend appeared enough, then there was one of her family, several of her friends, then she spotted herself. For a second her mind flashed with irrational joy, that is before she realized that she was where she was expected to be. The joy quickly vanished and the truth sunk in, she was not special.

Well, that's what this was about. Making her special, hopefully at least because she fully realized that you could not force someone to feel things that did not exist. Nor would she want to try, no this was just about making the options known.

Letting her bag slip down to the floor, she opened it and pulled out the three things she needed. First came the solid white card, its brief message printed in black ink. She had made sure it would be completely unrecognizable. Next out came a solid black calligraphy pen, a simple clue and finally she lifted out a small jewelry box, inside she had placed a simple silver necklace.

All of this she place in a simple redwood box, slipped it into the locker on top of the books already in there and then closed the locker. Suddenly she was plagued with second thoughts; what if someone saw her leave, what if her clue was too obvious, did she have a believable alibi? Now, she wondered if she should really do this. It wasn't too late; she could still open the locker, take everything out and leave without everyone none the wiser.

The reason for her fear wasn't being outed as a lesbian, or bisexual whichever she was, no she had done that many weeks ago. Not, you know publicly, but the news had undoubtedly already spread like wildfire in less time than it had taken to actually say the words. No, that was not why she was afraid; the main reason for her fear was that she was totally and completely infatuated with someone outside her acceptable social circle. Not only that, but a straight girl, with a boyfriend, who was ironically her stepsister. Compound all that with the fact that this girl had once been the very paragon for everything she despise and you had a deadly situation. This was the source of her fear.

How she'd gotten herself into this situation was a mystery even to her. Though she suspected she'd never had any choice of ability to change the outcome, she even suspected that she'd been infatuated in one way or another for long before she'd recognized her feelings. This meant that her, 'crush', was likely the cause of her antagonistic behavior. Though, now that she'd come to accept her feelings, she didn't really want to change them and now she didn't really want to imagine not having them.

These feelings had become part of her; they made her feel giddy and excited. They made her feel like she was doing something, changing something, they made her feel alive. It wasn't that there were no sad parts; she occasionally felt sudden bouts of despair fearing that she would never have that love returned. But in the end she still held out hope, against all likelihood that she could have what she desired, or more accurately that she would be desired in the same way she desired.

So it was with these thoughts in mind that she smiled, and turned away from the locker. Picking up her bag, she shouldered it then decided to start whistling inexplicably. As she neared the nearest door she looked back across her should down the empty and dark hallway.

"Tomorrow's a new day." She whispered, smiling. Then, adding. "Better get home."

With that final word to the desolate school she pushed open the door, and walked into the slowly coming night. And there sat her gift in the dark.

Tomorrow was Valentines Day.

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A/N: This is my first fic, please review.

But be gentle. This is part of a larger series of fics I have planned in my head, they all take place around or after the season two finale (which is for all intents and purpose the sries finale). If I get enough positive feedback, and am sufficiently motivated you should expect more from me in the future, I'm not exactly sure how happy you shoul be about that. :)


	2. Reactions

Today was the day, she had waited, she had planned, and then last night she'd stayed late. Despite all her precautions, all her preparations and planning she still couldn't help being irrationally afraid, every fiber of her being screamed in unison to force open the locker and grab the box left within. But her iron hard willed stayed her. This was the course of action she had chosen, now was no time to back out.

No, Sam was not going to back out. This, of course, did not mean she was by any definition of the word calm. No indeed, if anything she could be described as a raw steaming pile of nerves, she of course had good reason to be nervous. She had after all left a profession of, if not love, then at least infatuation in a certain girl's locker last night.

She had gotten up early that morning, Valentines morning to be exact, in order to get to school early. And now here she was, with probably at least another ten minutes before anything would even happen, a nervous wreck. She had managed to avoid any of her friends, because quite frankly she didn't feel like explaining why exactly she was spying on Brooke's locker this particular morning. Especially when the impending discovery of her gifts finally took place, it would raise all sorts of unnecessary and dangerous questions.

It wasn't the fact the fact that she didn't trust her friends, it was just that in high school once you told one person a secret it tended to snowball until everyone knew. Sam was definitely not ready for the Brooke to know about her little infatuation, much less the entire school body. The rumor mill was certainly not the source she wanted that little tidbit of information coming from.

That was what frightened her, not the possible backlash from her fellow students because, well, she wasn't really one to be concerned with the opinions of the masses. At least, she tried not to be. Acceptance is something after all; that ever teenager craves, to this Sam knew she was no exception.

So she let the minutes pass, with her mind churning all sorts of disastrous scenarios as the seconds ticked by. The intermittent flow of students into the school slowly turned into a steady stream, raised voices and the clatter of lockers began to fill the air. It didn't take much to separate Brooke's voice from the cacophony.

Her and her popular clique seemed to cut a swathe through the noise whenever they approached, as if some cosmic sound technician were signaling their voices out. When Brooke and Nicole approached Sam found easy to make out what the were saying as both of them stopped in front of Brooke's locker, continuing their conversation.

"Brookie, you're not seriously considering continuing with this travesty of a relationship?" Immediately Sam knew the subject of the argument.

"Yes Nic, I am." There was Brooke's reply, forceful and yet still friendly. "I'd just like to remind you that you had a hand in starting our relationship."

At that little reminder, a sudden wave of irrational anger overtook Sam's body. She had to forcibly calm herself before she could really think very well. That was one of the things that baffled the journalist to be to no end, how could Brooke have forgiven Nicole after that night. Sure the cheerleader had held onto he grudge for most of the summer and the first few weeks into the school year, but shortly after that she'd given Nicole the chance to explain. And explain she had, she said all sorts of things about knowing how unforgivable her actions were and that she knew she didn't really disserve to be forgiven but that she'd realized her mistake immediately afterwards.

Nicole had also gone on to explain that she was getting help for her myriad of self-esteem issues, and told Brooke how her therapist thought the entire incident fit in. Brooke, like her typical self had forgiven her and they'd restarted their friendship. It had been on rocky ground for those few first days and weeks of course, but had gradually slipped back into its previous predictable place. With Brooke's forgiveness eventually came the grudging forgiveness and acceptance of the rest of the school, though Nicole Julian still had to answer to the legal consequences.

Sam though couldn't bring herself to forgive Nicole, not that she'd particularly liked her before the accident. Partially she couldn't forgive Nicole because she couldn't forgive herself because she'd spent so long thinking she despised Brooke, convincing herself of this fact really that she hadn't been able to recognize what she was really feeling. And that night there'd been a significant possibility that she might never have been able to do it, that is to vocalize her feelings to the blonde.

It was almost like her brain and Nicole had conspired to steal that opportunity from her that night, and so despite the fact that she knew Nicole felt horrible and had been in a drunken rage brought on by feelings of inadequacy, she still couldn't forgive her. Yet, at the same time the fact that Nicole was pushing for Brooke and Harrison to break up made Sam feel kind of giddy inside. She doubted Brooke would actually do it, but still it was encouraging that the idea was even being entertained in any of Brooke's conversations.

Sam was suddenly shocked out of her reverie by the clang of a nearby locker she refocused on Nicole and Brooke. They were finishing up their conversation, and Sam could only catch the very tail end of whatever was being said, though from the sound of it there hadn't been a major change in subject.

"…Ok, B. I hope you know what you're doing. See you." Nicole ended, turning and walking away to go get her own books and things.

Sam's heartbeat pounded in her ears as she watched Brooke twist the plastic number knob around and around with agonizing slowness. Then suddenly, with a pop and a clink the door swung open and there it was. All of her nervousness and fears, suddenly disappeared because suddenly she could no longer stop it there was now ay for her to stop Brooke from seeing what was in there. There was no more pressure. That felt good.

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For a few slow seconds Brooke simply stared at the box, not really comprehending what it was. Then immediately she jumped to the conclusion that it was from Harrison, that he'd decided to do something utterly unexpected and leave her a gift in her locker. Almost immediately thought she dismissed that, Harrison didn't know her combination, right? If it wasn't from Harrison who was it from, and who would have a reason to give her a gift, on Valentines Day? Sure plenty of guys had crushes on her, but how many of them would take the time and energy to break into her locker and leave such a…beautiful gift. It was closer to something Harrison would do, and even then it was a pretty big stretch.

Harrison was nice, and even at times romantic, but he'd never displayed such, well she wasn't even sure what she could call it she just knew that it wasn't Harrison like. Now the question was, who could've done this? Pushing these thoughts to the back of her mind she reached into the locker slowly and grabbed the wooden box. The light glinted off it's smooth surface, holding it in both hands all school related subjects forgotten she stared into the dark red wood for several moments. Lifting the lid gently she stared the plane white sheet of paper, the anticlimactic effect of the white paper caused a grin to light up her face. Followed shortly by a rush of soft laughter.

Settling down quickly she lifted the note and opened it, the note was just as plain as the outside would suggest. Simple black printed letters, centered taking up no more than a quarter of a page they said nothing about who it was.

If you gave me a chance 

_If you decided I was the one_

_If you knew who I was_

_If you looked at me that way_

_I look at you_

_What could we be?_

_You won't know who I am yet, not today. Soon though, especially if you follow the clues. Enjoy half of my heart._

That was all that the note said, the last part was particularly confusing to the blonde cheerleader. Turning it over she looked for more, but found nothing. Looking back down into the box she found a slim black pen, and next to it there was a jewelry box. Lifting the smaller box out she snapped it open and gasped lightly, pulling the long silver chain up from the velvet interior of the small box. At the end of the chain dangled half of a silver heart.

Brooke looked to her left and right, as if to see if she could magically spot the person who had left her these gifts. Setting all the things back inside the box and then placing it once again inside her locker she quickly grabbed her books and hurried off to class. She really needed some time to think about this, but for now she would just have to focus on her classes.

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Sam had watched Brooke throughout the day, finding it highly amusing how she went about the day constantly looking in every direction. She'd watched her fiddle absently with her food during lunch and end up not eating anything, which would normally have been something to worry over but today was just an obvious effect of this mornings events. Sam had also seen Brooke's nervous interactions with Harrison throughout the day, and watched the cheerleader fumble around asking every available source for information and receiving nothing. No one knew anything, Sam had made sure of that.

Now she was standing in the hallway outside of Brooke's room, knocking softly on the door and waiting for a response from the occupant.

"Come in." Brooke said distractedly, she didn't even look up when Sam opened the door and stepped in, she simply continued to work on the homework spread out in front of her.

"So, I heard about your special gift this morning." Sam said with a smirk, walking nonchalantly around the room.

"Huh…Wha?" Brooke said suddenly startled, then continuing when she realized what she was saying. "Oh yeah…"

"You know, Harrison never showed any signs of being the breaking and entering type. " She joked.

"Yeah…well I don't think it was him." Brooke responded, still somewhat distractedly.

"Oh…well then, who?" Sam started, then suddenly. "Josh?"

"No, no, no, no." The cheerleader started. "One, Josh knows I wouldn't take him back, and two I doubt he wants me back. I put him through the wringer."

There was a pause in the conversation, Brooke continued with her homework while Sam continued with her cursory inspection of the blondes' room. It was Brooke who broke the silence first.

"Whoever it is though, really put a lot of thought into it." She started, a thoughtful expression crossed her face as she paused again, looking up towards the ceiling before continuing. "I'd at least like to talk to him."

"Yeah, that's all very interesting…anyways I heard Harrison has something special planned." Sam hid the somewhat hurt expression when Brooke said _him_, not that she'd expected to hear any variation of the female pronoun but it still hit something deep inside her. It did warm her that Brooke was at least not averse to giving this mystery person a chance, and certainly appreciated the gifts.

"See ya, Princess." She muttered as she left, padding back to her own room, satisfied with a stupid grin on her face. Things were certainly looking up.

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A/N: There's the end of this.

This is part of a larger series, I'm less than optimistic about this second larger chapter. I don't think I do very well with keeping characters actually true to the original portrayals, but oh well that's just something I'll have to work on.


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